After suffering through the hard-to-control mess that is Kinect Star Warslast week, I suspected more than ever that Microsoft's revolutionary 3D camera would never be truly useful for anything but dancing titles and silly, child-focused tech demos. But Capcom's Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor, which I tried out at PAX East this weekend, went a long way toward convincing me there's a role for Kinect motion controls integrated on top of standard handheld controls in more traditional games.

Heavy Armor is a follow-up to the original Xbox's Steel Battalion mech-combat series, which became famous (or perhaps infamous) for requiring a monstrosity of a controller that features two large flight sticks, three pedals, a gear shift, and dozens of buttons for everything from the windshield wipers to the ejection seat (failing to engage the latter before death would result in your save file being deleted from your hard drive). The game drew a cult following from players that want to know just how complicated it would be to control a 20-story robot in real life, but probably scared off most potential players as soon as they learned they had to flip six switches just to start the mech for each match.

The startup sequence is one of many things that have been streamlined in Heavy Armor—now you just reach out your right hand and pull an imaginary throttle sitting to your side, a motion that the Kinect interprets and then replicates on-screen from your first-person viewpoint inside the mech's claustrophobic control center. You'll be making similar quick arm movements to do activities such as pulling down a periscope, tapping large red buttons that select different types of munitions, and twirling the view to talk to your mech co-pilots. I was a bit tentative with these motions at first, slowly waiting for the Kinect to recognize my hand before completing a motion, but by the end of the 30-minute demo I was confident enough to just quickly gesture and trust that the Kinect would interpret my moves correctly.

But the real key that makes the Kinect work for Heavy Armor's controls is the fact that you use a standard Xbox 360 controller for the most frequent and important parts of the game—namely, moving your mech and shooting at things. Other Kinect titles have felt the need to do away with physical controls entirely, forcing you to awkwardly hold your hands in mid-air and fiddle with two imaginary joysticks to imprecisely hobble different ways. The developers of Heavy Armor were smart enough to realize that the standard Xbox 360 controller provides the kind of precision and quick response times that are crucial for these core controls, and that the Kinect just can't match.

In other words, the Kinect controls are used sparingly, and only for the kinds of infrequent yet important actions that make sense to control using motion rather than a button. Basically, if you can see it on the complex control array on screen, you can reach for it, which ends up being much more natural than trying to remember some obscure button combination for a rarely used function. At the same time, the game doesn't make the mistake of asking you to constantly move your arms about for simple, routine controls. The motion-controlled bits are important, but not so frequent that you'll tire yourself out when you're just trying to relax with a good espcaist video game. It also helps that this is one of the rare Kinect games that is designed to be played while seated (although standing up lets you get an unobscured view of the battlefield that is much wider than the one through the tiny, easily cracked glass pane that is usually your primary window to the world).

As for the game itself, the slow, lumbering combat might take some getting used to for players that are more acclimated to the faster-paced mech battles of games like Armored Core or MechWarrior. The mechs in Heavy Armor feel, well, heavy, lumbering along like the multiton behemoths they are with a sickening kind of bob and sway. Knowing how to stand your ground and answer back at heavy incoming fire is more important than knowing how to nimbly dodge out of the way here, continuing a series tradition of trying to accurately replicate what such a massive mechanical beast would actually move like in real life.

But what I think Heavy Armor will likely be remembered for is opening up a true middle ground in the use of Kinect controls. Adding occasional, less-than-critical motion controls for some functions in a game doesn't mean you have to throw out the kinds of standard handheld controls that have been refined and perfected over the last decades. The sooner more Xbox 360 developers learn that lesson, the better.

Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl

37 Reader Comments

Heavy Armor is a follow-up to the original Xbox's Steel Battalion mech-combat series, which became famous (or perhaps infamous) for requiring a monstrosity of a controller that features two large flight sticks, three pedals, a gear shift, and dozens of buttons for everything from the windshield wipers to the ejection seat (failing to engage the latter before death would result in your save file being deleted from your hard drive).

God damn that was so awesome. I feel bad for people who never got to at least try it out. A pity they couldn't have taken the controller and expanded its use for other games on the PC as well. I feel like there would be a small but steady niche for that with the right platform, a sandbox and ability for players to continue to support, mod and expand abilities.

I also played this at PAX East. I felt certain things while logical (ex: getting hit by a shell knocked you back away from the main gun view) really hurt playability. The motion controls made sense and worked but came with the same limitation seen in other Kinect games, namely having to wait a second for the system to recognize you were grabbing a level or flipping a switch.

I agree with xoa. The Steel Battalion controller was one of the best gaming peripherals I've ever purchased. I think the motion controls of this new title are interesting but I would kill for a cross-platform controller with the same functionality offered in the first Steel Battalion.

I've been saying controllers should be integrated with the Kinect since the thing came out. Trying to squish a whole game into arm waving is less natural than using the controller in the first place.

Though since on the fence on this one...the plot just seems ridiculous with the whole WWII look. Technological regression while unlikely is less likely to dig up old WWII gear...we'll see but I would be more excited if this actually looked anything similar to the first.

I agree with xoa. The Steel Battalion controller was one of the best gaming peripherals I've ever purchased. I think the motion controls of this new title are interesting but I would kill for a cross-platform controller with the same functionality offered in the first Steel Battalion.

Damn. I wish someone would make something like that for a Freelancer-style sandbox space sim.

This is exactly what I always had in mind for Kinect controls for 'hardcore' games. I want to see arm/hand motions for a tactical shooter, where you control your unit via motion/voice just as a real platoon leader would in the field.

I agree with xoa. The Steel Battalion controller was one of the best gaming peripherals I've ever purchased. I think the motion controls of this new title are interesting but I would kill for a cross-platform controller with the same functionality offered in the first Steel Battalion.

Dunno about cross-platform, but some of the saitek flight gear gets into that territory.

This sounds like an awesome way to integrate the Kinect into existing control schemes. I would honestly buy a Kinect for this game, just to give the developers a positive for this, even if the game itself isn't the best at it.

I wonder, why is it the Kinect is slow to register your hand motions and all that? Is it the Kinect hardware or software that limits this? Maybe the Xbox 360 itself?

I agree with xoa. The Steel Battalion controller was one of the best gaming peripherals I've ever purchased. I think the motion controls of this new title are interesting but I would kill for a cross-platform controller with the same functionality offered in the first Steel Battalion.

A quick Google search gave me multiple projects on interfacing the SB controller with a computer. Since original Xbox controllers are really just USB with a proprietary connector that one can buy a cheap adapter for, this seems pretty trivial.

Heavy Armor is a follow-up to the original Xbox's Steel Battalion mech-combat series, which became famous (or perhaps infamous) for requiring a monstrosity of a controller that features two large flight sticks, three pedals, a gear shift, and dozens of buttons for everything from the windshield wipers to the ejection seat (failing to engage the latter before death would result in your save file being deleted from your hard drive).

God damn that was so awesome. I feel bad for people who never got to at least try it out. A pity they couldn't have taken the controller and expanded its use for other games on the PC as well. I feel like there would be a small but steady niche for that with the right platform, a sandbox and ability for players to continue to support, mod and expand abilities.

It was pretty terrible in practice and completely destroyed any sense of immersion. The controller was made to be huge for the sake of being huge, and functions were illogically strewn across wide sections of the controller simply for the sake of adding complexity.

It was a human-factors nightmare and never would have actually seen production in a combat machine.

(Well, OK, I could totally see it fitting as a simulation of the cockpit of Megas XLR, but that's it).

It sounds as though they may have learned a lesson though, and this one may actually have gotten it right.

I saw this at PAX East, and while I didn't get to play, I did watch a few people playing through the demo.

Universally, people were struggling with the kinect controls. It just wasn't responsive enough, and it wasn't picking up on a lot of their motions. They were trying to play the game with one hand while the other flailed about trying to grab at one kinect control or another.

I do want this game to be good, so I hope they tighten up the kinect portion before launch. I remain skeptical, for now.

Just not the same without the hulking controller that was the size of the moon.

Certainly it's not practical to sell such an item, but I'm sure it would have found a greater niche amongst PC players than on the Xbox.

Don't really plan to own a Kinect anytime soon. Still, the footage and gameplay looked cool from what I've seen, and it would be one of the few titles I would be looking forward to if I did indeed own one.

This is exactly what I always had in mind for Kinect controls for 'hardcore' games. I want to see arm/hand motions for a tactical shooter, where you control your unit via motion/voice just as a real platoon leader would in the field.

That would be awesome. Hand motions to control your squad when you're on a silent mission. Or throwing grenades, if they could get the accuracy down.

I've been saying controllers should be integrated with the Kinect since the thing came out. Trying to squish a whole game into arm waving is less natural than using the controller in the first place..

Well, I blame the other (Wii, Wii-improved, err, PS3) for that. It seems people got the idea that "motion controls" were the sole exclusion of everything else. Even the whole Kinect marketing campaign made that same mistake with "You are the controller.".

And yet, the Kinect is the only system that can also use a normal controller to augment its input (well, the Wiimote... but then again there's all those Wii controllers available...).

Hell, I bet the Kinect can also do a Move and have special prop controllers as well - nothing like wielding a BR-55 prop during Halo 4 now, eh? (I don't think skeletal tracking needs to be done for that - you can do a light thing).

Of course, I saw a review for Kinect Star Wars that complained that it wasn't as good as those motion capture devices he's used. He forgot to mention that the Kinect is two orders of magnitude cheaper, and doesn't require wearing suits of balls stuck on them...

It was pretty terrible in practice and completely destroyed any sense of immersion. The controller was made to be huge for the sake of being huge, and functions were illogically strewn across wide sections of the controller simply for the sake of adding complexity.

Eh, to each their own. A lot of older high performance airplane cockpits had pretty crazy controls as well, for context, albeit usually with more of a sense of logic. Nevertheless I (and based on reviews at least some others) found it pretty fun, even if yes, it could have been laid out better in theory. No denying that people who love that level of detail and complexity are a niche, but I mean, $200 controller? Yeah, niche status kind of assured regardless .

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It sounds as though they may have learned a lesson though, and this one may actually have gotten it right.

They aren't related. It's not a matter of learning lessons, they're trying to do something interesting with what they've got this time around. Which I appreciate, but it's not the same thing either.

Wish the old sb controller worked with the 360, I miss having to close the cockpit, flip the switches, start the engines. I remember flipping out about the mech falling over when turning too tightly, it really felt like being in a falling five to ten story building. Just isn't the same, especially since the original had a camera control, arm/upper torso control, and leg controls.

A lot of older high performance airplane cockpits had pretty crazy controls as well, for context, albeit usually with more of a sense of logic.

I'm aware, and no, they generally weren't that bad. At least not among the successful ones anyway.

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Nevertheless I (and based on reviews at least some others) found it pretty fun, even if yes, it could have been laid out better in theory. No denying that people who love that level of detail and complexity are a niche, but I mean, $200 controller? Yeah, niche status kind of assured regardless .

As someone who has been running a full HOTAS setup on the PC since 1995, and a basic cockpit mock-up for the last 10+ years, I understand the target demographic. Heck I AM the target demographic . The control scheme was horrendous. The object of a HOTAS like that is to increase combat effectiveness by putting everything critical at your fingertips with a minimal amount of movement and effort. The SB controller was very specifically the opposite of that. Related functions were all over the place, often requiring multi-step procedures to execute that had you hitting buttons back and forth across panels as far apart as possible. For infrequent stuff like start-up, that's fine. Weapon systems and mobility? Not so much.

Eh, I'm sure some people loved it, but as someone who spent hours devising and refining the perfect control assignments across a stick, throttle and rudder pedals to play through the Mechwarrior 2 series, SB's implementation was very clearly set up to justify (and require) the use of the special controller. That was immersion breaking for me, because a potentially wonderful controller that should have greatly enhanced the experience existed mainly to get in the way.

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They aren't related. It's not a matter of learning lessons, they're trying to do something interesting with what they've got this time around. Which I appreciate, but it's not the same thing either.

Shame then. I hate games where I feel like I'm fighting the controls more than I'm playing the game. A good control scheme should at the least get out of your way. A great control scheme enhances your performance and abilities.

I'm aware, and no, they generally weren't that bad. At least not among the successful ones anyway.

Yes, although a few really were terrible. More importantly to this discussion though, they were acknowledged as overly complex and significant effort has been devoted towards tremendously reducing extraneous pilot mental load (the "glass cockpits" and such, which you probably know all about). Presumably that trend won't exactly be going in reverse, so yeah, I don't deny that the SB thing was unrealistic.

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As someone who has been running a full HOTAS setup on the PC since 1995, and a basic cockpit mock-up for the last 10+ years, I understand the target demographic. Heck I AM the target demographic .

I think that level of hardcore is even beyond the target .

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Eh, I'm sure some people loved it, but as someone who spent hours devising and refining the perfect control assignments across a stick, throttle and rudder pedals to play through the Mechwarrior 2 series, SB's implementation was very clearly set up to justify (and require) the use of the special controller. That was immersion breaking for me, because a potentially wonderful controller that should have greatly enhanced the experience existed mainly to get in the way.

To be clear, I'm not arguing with you that it was suboptimal, and that in a more competitive environment it'd not be a stand out at all. Some of us have more tolerance for quirks, even significant ones, then others. As a completely unique experience it, at least for me, earned more leniency then it might have otherwise, but that's how it was. Since it sounds like you go ahead and make much more immersive stuff on your own though (I've considered that but never really gotten around to it) it's totally fair for you to judge it by higher standards.

Also, it doesn't affect the actual result one bit, but I do personally take a slightly less cynical view on the motivations then you have there. I suspect it was less a matter of "purposely make things more complex", rather they were trying to map out every last thing in a "realistic" manner and just plain didn't exactly know what they were doing. They were breaking new ground to an extent and it was always going to be limited run, they probably didn't have much experience, had relatively tight deadlines and design budgets, etc. I don't blame them necessarily for failing to go out and maybe try to interview some actual military cockpit designers. Some people just aren't great at that side of things, to our regret in many a video game with no custom hardware at all.

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They aren't related. It's not a matter of learning lessons, they're trying to do something interesting with what they've got this time around. Which I appreciate, but it's not the same thing either.

Shame then. I hate games where I feel like I'm fighting the controls more than I'm playing the game. A good control scheme should at the least get out of your way. A great control scheme enhances your performance and abilities.

Oh, well as far as "make it more strictly enhancing" maybe they will get that as a lesson, can't tell that without putting some time into it (although the lag bit sounds concerning). I meant that this is pretty different then making another huge controller except with a HIG team behind it, it's trying to do something new with no extra hardware at all. That may produce it's own, independent and cool experience, but the different physical constraints will necessarily produce something that is, well, independent. It'll deserve to be judged on its own merits.

I do hope that someone else will pick up the torch again for a product between really hardcore, roll-your-own-everything and game-controller-that-ships-with-a-console. In that case, it would be good if they put a lot more thought into it and drew lessons for what worked and didn't with stuff like SB, as well as real world systems. Might make for a cool Kickstarter project actually.

Heavy Armor is a follow-up to the original Xbox's Steel Battalion mech-combat series, which became famous (or perhaps infamous) for requiring a monstrosity of a controller that features two large flight sticks, three pedals, a gear shift, and dozens of buttons for everything from the windshield wipers to the ejection seat (failing to engage the latter before death would result in your save file being deleted from your hard drive).

God damn that was so awesome. I feel bad for people who never got to at least try it out. A pity they couldn't have taken the controller and expanded its use for other games on the PC as well. I feel like there would be a small but steady niche for that with the right platform, a sandbox and ability for players to continue to support, mod and expand abilities.

It was pretty terrible in practice and completely destroyed any sense of immersion. The controller was made to be huge for the sake of being huge, and functions were illogically strewn across wide sections of the controller simply for the sake of adding complexity.

It was a human-factors nightmare and never would have actually seen production in a combat machine.

(Well, OK, I could totally see it fitting as a simulation of the cockpit of Megas XLR, but that's it).

It sounds as though they may have learned a lesson though, and this one may actually have gotten it right.

They weren't selling an arcade-style kids game like Afterburner or Ace Combat, they were selling a SIMULATOR, a genre that is all-but-extinct (and arguably is extinct, now that Microsoft has discontinued the Flight Simulator software line). The whole point as that you have an immersive control setup.

As to control location, I never saw a serious issue with it. Everything was logically grouped based on situational need and function. It worked extremely well (and certainly better than all-purpose setups found on PC, or simply using a keyboard). You might find it interesting to know that most sim-jockies have better setups in their computer rooms than you'll find in the GCS for a Predator, myself included. Could they have improved on it? Sure. Was it horrifically bad as you imply? Not even close.

You didn't like the controller, that's fine, but it's the primary factor responsible for the game's following: the best, most immersive, and hardcore control and gaming experience since the BattleTech pods in California.

Find me something that even comes close, on any platform, without hundreds of dollars (more than SB on X-Box), and a significant amount of time, work, and knowledge to put together a custom setup.

Virogtheconq wrote:

Mikoto wrote:

Also, Gundam version. Stat.

Where does this:

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The mechs in Heavy Armor feel, well, heavy, lumbering along like the multiton behemoths they are with a sickening kind of bob and sway

translate to Gundam?

Because children invariably obsess over the single worst mech series in the history of television, movies, and gaming combined.

tlhIngan wrote:

Dogapult wrote:

I've been saying controllers should be integrated with the Kinect since the thing came out. Trying to squish a whole game into arm waving is less natural than using the controller in the first place..

Well, I blame the other (Wii, Wii-improved, err, PS3) for that. It seems people got the idea that "motion controls" were the sole exclusion of everything else. Even the whole Kinect marketing campaign made that same mistake with "You are the controller.".

And yet, the Kinect is the only system that can also use a normal controller to augment its input (well, the Wiimote... but then again there's all those Wii controllers available...).

Hell, I bet the Kinect can also do a Move and have special prop controllers as well - nothing like wielding a BR-55 prop during Halo 4 now, eh? (I don't think skeletal tracking needs to be done for that - you can do a light thing).

Of course, I saw a review for Kinect Star Wars that complained that it wasn't as good as those motion capture devices he's used. He forgot to mention that the Kinect is two orders of magnitude cheaper, and doesn't require wearing suits of balls stuck on them...

And yet, the PS3 does support simultaneous use of the regular controller in the same way that the Wii does, both of which are only distinguished from the MSFT solution by having a controller to quickly pick up from next to you. That said, there's really nothing technical stopping the PS3 from doing the same, it just wouldn't have the same degree of accuracy as the 360 due to the cameras involved (though the PS3 still wears the crown for highest accuracy motion system, though it does need the controller to achieve that accuracy); while MSFT did improve on it by adding some more existing technology (infrared cameras, for example), Sony had the core technology up and running on the PS2, and it's been around on PC since long before even that.

Wasn't the whole "You can only use the Kinect to contol Kinect games" some kind of mandate from Microsoft? You know, to go along with the "You are the controller" nonsense? It's not like Capcom are geniuses for figuring out that you should use the controller in connection with the Kinect. Just look at the comments in any of the earliest articles about Kinect; people immediately realised that combining the two made sense.

Maybe if this does well, MS will release some kind of simple "nunchuck" that you can comfortably hold in one hand.

Wasn't the whole "You can only use the Kinect to contol Kinect games" some kind of mandate from Microsoft? You know, to go along with the "You are the controller" nonsense? It's not like Capcom are geniuses for figuring out that you should use the controller in connection with the Kinect. Just look at the comments in any of the earliest articles about Kinect; people immediately realised that combining the two made sense.

Maybe if this does well, MS will release some kind of simple "nunchuck" that you can comfortably hold in one hand.

I don't know if there was any such restriction, but admittedly I haven't looked too closely beyond the core technology involved with Kinect. That said, Microsoft has previously permitted exceptions to their rules: EA is permitted to host dedicated servers (paid for out-of-pocket with no help from MS, and it still requires XBL Gold), SE was permitted to have keyboard and mouse support for FFXI as well as no requirement for XBL Gold. Given that I wasn't alone in purchasing the original X-Box solely for Steel Batallion, I could see MS making an exception to policy for Capcom to do this, as it _will_ sell Kinect units, and systems (hell, if the reviews are still good by the time it hits market, I'll be picking up a Kinect and this game myself, even though the original controller would have been much better).

Capcom's Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor...went a long way toward convincing me there's a role for Kinect motion controls integrated on top of standard handheld controls in more traditional games

Geez, I hate being right all the time. To me this kind of implementation was obvious. I couldn't understand why everyone kept acting like a game had to be Kinect only or controller only. Although I envisioned a more gradual transition where games would allow you to use the Kinect as an optional enhancement (like ME3), but it sounds like this game requires Kinect. This sounds cool. I'd like to try it, but I don't see myself buying a Kinect quite yet, still waiting for that killer app.

Heavy Armor is a follow-up to the original Xbox's Steel Battalion mech-combat series, which became famous (or perhaps infamous) for requiring a monstrosity of a controller that features two large flight sticks, three pedals, a gear shift, and dozens of buttons for everything from the windshield wipers to the ejection seat (failing to engage the latter before death would result in your save file being deleted from your hard drive).

God damn that was so awesome. I feel bad for people who never got to at least try it out. A pity they couldn't have taken the controller and expanded its use for other games on the PC as well. I feel like there would be a small but steady niche for that with the right platform, a sandbox and ability for players to continue to support, mod and expand abilities.

I actually found a website a while back that had drivers to use the XBox controller via adapter on your PC. IIRC, they had ARMA on their and several flight sims. I think one of the Mechwarrior games was supported as well.

I think Forza 4 did a nice job implementing the Kinect, using head tracking to enable you to look through corners, and adding the ability to "walk around" cars in the Autovista mode. The fact they included a full control method is decent fun for casual use at parties and such, but I think they really nailed the other "limited use" implementations of Kinect.

It's sad that people will spend hundreds of dollars on nearly useless peripherals over the course of a single console generation...sometimes even replace their console with the same friggin console...and yet complicated hardware throws them for a loop.

@Kyle Orland That five toggle-switch startup was nothing more than a fancy dance prior to watching the level meters for systems power and timing the ignition button. There are iphone fart apps more complicated than that. As for the rest, it's a learning curve, much like driving a car or a lawnmower.

The key difference is you have to WANT to pilot a mech. You need to have prior interest, and that is what kept this game from getting into the public. Not cost...you certainly can't claim that after all the wasted money on a wii and it's numerous controllers, or just replacing a $250 controller and game with a $210 ($150+$60) controller and game.

Can't find the site with the ARMA reference, but this site has info and config files for MW4, MW3, and Freespace 2.

I agree with xoa. The Steel Battalion controller was one of the best gaming peripherals I've ever purchased. I think the motion controls of this new title are interesting but I would kill for a cross-platform controller with the same functionality offered in the first Steel Battalion.

Damn. I wish someone would make something like that for a Freelancer-style sandbox space sim.

There was no need to raise my dreams so high. It will only lead to me getting emotionally hurt.

The possibility exists. A kickstarter project (Starlight Inception) is being pitched by a ex-modeler (Gary Gaber) of Lucasarts who has a pretty good game record (Jedi Knight, Rebel Assault II, Armed and Dangerous, Force Commander, Galactic Battleground expansion). He left LucasArts to found Escape Hatch Entertainment. He also happens to be a rabid fan of Wing Commander, X-Wing vs. Tie, Freespace, etc.

Used with remapping software this new IP could give the ST controller new life. There's a whole lotta' "if" involved...but the possibility exists.

The possibility exists. A kickstarter project (Starlight Inception) is being pitched by a ex-modeler (Gary Gaber) of Lucasarts who has a pretty good game record (Jedi Knight, Rebel Assault II, Armed and Dangerous, Force Commander, Galactic Battleground expansion). He left LucasArts to found Escape Hatch Entertainment. He also happens to be a rabid fan of Wing Commander, X-Wing vs. Tie, Freespace, etc.

Used with remapping software this new IP could give the ST controller new life. There's a whole lotta' "if" involved...but the possibility exists.

Ok, so a collection of bad console Star Wars games, and the only Star Wars flight sim he worked on was the first bad one (X-Wing vs TIE never made it onto any lists; TIE Fighter still lands on most "top games of all time" lists, with X-Wing shortly behind it).

Freespace and Wing commander were great though.

Bottom line, he's worked on a few good games, a few ok games, and a few terrible games. What this means is that there's really no way to know how the project will go. I'll hope, but I won't hope too much; we haven't had a truly great Star Wars game since the original TIE Fighter.

I could totally see this with Move controllers: use two of them as two mech sticks but then when you want to hit a mech-console button, hold down the Move button and it switches to an on-screen "hand" that you move around to hit the buttons. Something like that.

I could totally see this with Move controllers: use two of them as two mech sticks but then when you want to hit a mech-console button, hold down the Move button and it switches to an on-screen "hand" that you move around to hit the buttons. Something like that.

I strongly prefer Move for its superior accuracy, but the interface would not translate well to that type of action. There's a reason that simulations have declined alongside PC gaming as a whole: you really need, at a minimum, the variety of physical control offered by a keyboard, and ideally a dedicated physical interface with sufficient controls (i.e. HOTAS setups).

You want to experience what a simulation should be like, get a high-end flight system, including pedals, a 3d monitor and glasses+emitter kit, and a TrackIR. Now install ArmA2 and hop in an aircraft.

I could totally see this with Move controllers: use two of them as two mech sticks but then when you want to hit a mech-console button, hold down the Move button and it switches to an on-screen "hand" that you move around to hit the buttons. Something like that.

Move controller will let you play an exciting mech traffic controller at the busy cross roads to the battlefield. You can waive your glowing light balls until your fellow mech warriors can orderly cue up and cue out of the cross roads. I don't see where Move controller will be useful. Maybe Japanese version of fast reacting Gundam game.